This is the official blog of Sgt Ellie Bloggs, a real live police sergeant on the front line of England. It's not the official opinion of my police force, but all the facts I recount are true, and are not secrets. If they don't want me blogging about it, they shouldn't do it. PS If you don't pay tax, you don't pay my salary.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

An empty house in Hattersley

We don't yet know their identities, whether they had children, partners. Whether they were bright young probationers embarking on the vocation of their dreams, or seasoned beat officers looking back on decades of long service. We don't know if they had been decorated for bravery, or disciplined for mistakes. We don't know how often they had worked together, or how many officers can tell anecdotes about the time they did this, or someone said that to them.

We don't know the number of other crews on duty in Manchester today, listening to the same Airwave channel. How many earpierces resounded with the sound of ricochets, how many throats choked to hear the emergency button activation followed by cries, or silence. We don't know how many traffic laws were broken as units flooded to the scene; whether unarmed colleagues ran to their rescue or waited round the corner; how quickly armed officers were on scene and whether they could tell it was over immediately, or if there was hope.

"The police officers have been shot", said by a neighbour to the window cleaner, is what we know. It's enough to feel grief and dismay, and more information can only cause these feelings to grow.

The inevitable comments will follow, degrading and diminishing the deaths of these women. For some, it will have something to do with Hilsborough, or Ian Tomlinson. For others, it will matter less because they wore a uniform.

But most people understand that the blood pressure of the nation is linked to the pulse of the police. Love us, hate us, our hearts beat in time.

Strength to their loved ones, and to their colleagues. Rest in peace.

Update: PC Fiona Bone and PC Nicola Hughes:

------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Diary of an On-Call Girl' is available in some bookstores and online.

Despite recent publicity to the contrary, most officers are decent, honest and hardworking. not to mention the fact that every single day, they risk their lives to protect the public. This is a very sad reminder.

What I cannot understand is, if GMP were already looking for the killer and armed officers were already in that area, then WHY were two unarmed female officers sent to the report of a break in?

Something just does not ring right with what happened there. Were Fiona and Nicola perhaps set up for that danger, for some other unknown to us reason? Or was it just a lack of thought, or experience, by the control room that sent them to investigate?

Had Fiona and Nicola been told recently about child sexual abuse, corruption, and system cover ups by some victims? There have been many cover ups in the past, all over the U.K. The H.O know this.

Something isn't right with this tragic incident, in addition to the fact that a known to be very dangerous man, killed two young unarmed police women in cold blood.

"What I cannot understand is, if GMP were already looking for the killer and armed officers were already in that area, then WHY were two unarmed female officers sent to the report of a break in?"

Its quite simple, in that small area alone there are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of calls per week and month, most of them fairly routine - like this call appeared to be. There simply are not enough armed officers around to send them to deal with each and every call.

From what the media says, there was not a single piece of information or intelligence to suggest that this call was any different from any of the other calls which unarmed officers (male or female) attend on a daily basis.

We either need to arm our police or bring back capital punishment for criminals who kill anyone (not just police officers) whilst breaking the law.I prefer the latter approach as arming the police would be the thin end of the wedge as civilian security personnel, such as those transporting cash, would also want to be armed.

'The inevitable comments will follow, degrading and diminishing the deaths of these women. For some, it will have something to do with Hilsborough, or Ian Tomlinson. For others, it will matter less because they wore a uniform.'

I thought, as others have, that it was strange the way the WPCs were sent in. I have the right to think that, whether anyone agrees or not.

If tasteless is your wish, I could wonder how many days it took for the police to send anyone to investigate a reported burglary?

Anon@ 21 September, 2012 14:15 said... "However, the report received in this case was that the offenders on the premises, which means it's an immediate response."

And with armed officers already in the area on the look out for Dale Creegan, it didn't occur to anyone that it could be him....and they send two unarmed police women in response to that call? Oh My God...

"And with armed officers already in the area on the look out for Dale Creegan, it didn't occur to anyone that it could be him....and they send two unarmed police women in response to that call? Oh My God..."

Errh, as has previously been stated, with hundreds, if not thousands of calls likely to be received by the police in that one area alone over the weeks and months, then there are not enough armed officers to attend every call. Especially a fairly routine call like that.

Firstly, we don’t actually know that there were armed police officers in that area at the specific time the call for a burglary in progress was made.

Secondly, if there were armed police officers in the area, we don’t know that they were not dealing with something else when the call came in and therefore unavailable to attend this call..

Thirdly, if armed officers were sent to a report of a burglary in progress and it had been genuine and had made an arrest, then they would have to process that arrest, meaning they’d be off the streets for hours and not available for any future firearms incident which may occur.

Fourthly, we have a mainly unarmed police force and you tend not to send armed officers to every call in an area, even if there is a murderer on the loose, unless there is some specific intelligence to justify sending an armed unit.

Fifthly, there are dangerous and wanted people all other the UK. If you think that sending armed police to calls should be normal if there is a dangerous person at large in an area, then your pretty arguing for every police officer to be armed routinely.

Can we stop the blame game. The person responsible for the murders was Cregan (allegedly, innocent until proven guilty etc) who has acted in a premeditated and cowardly manner by selecting unarmed officers.Had he wanted to "go down fighting" he knew the number to call to get armed officers at his door.Murdering cowardly scumbag.